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Being a seasoned programmer but maketing/affiliate illiterate I have been reading through various sites and forums.
I am "trying" to sum up what goes around in building a profitable site through affiliate programs.

Note that this is how I see it right now, and I might look at things the wrong way
but that's why I am asking here, so feedback is more then welcome.

1) Find an affiliate program

The first step is to locate an affiliate program.

- Try to find a category that has your interest. More change of getting through those difficult times
when it just doesn't look worth it anymore.

Finding a category by using tools such as wordtracker and overture, look at how big the competition
is through the use of search engines (although i'd mostly use google ?).
Obviously, an affiliate program that sells computers is probably not the category you are looking for
as a newcomer because of it's high competition.

2) Domain names and hosting

Get a domain name and a hosting package.

- hyphenated domains are better from a SEO point of view.
- Hosting, as this market is in my opinion saturated there are plenty of choises to pick from
- I suggest reading webhostingtalk and see if there are any reviews/posts available for your hosting company.
The single most important part in a hosting package is uptime, if your site is down 2-3 days in a row
you are loosing valuable business opportunities. Use a website monitoring tool (Nagios is good and free).
Do not hesitate to leave your current host, there's no logic in running a site that's offline.

3) Build your site.

- It doesn't matter which language you choose, pick the one your most comfortable with.
- When programming keep the SEO part in mind, things like title tags, h1, b, alt tags/attributes.
- <something about keyword density here> <- open for suggestions.
- Keep page sizes as small as possible, reduce big images, and be very carefull with flash.
- A website should be easy and

4) Promote your site

- Submit your sites manually to the major search engines
- <include list of major search-engines>
- Find directories to submit your site to.
- Use google to find related directories
- Basically, get as many as backlinks as possible.

5) Write content/related articles about the products you are promoting.

6) As everthing from SEO to technologies change at the speed of an eye blink be sure
to keep up-to-date on the subject as much as possible.
<include a list of usefull resouces> ABW being one of them.

Mind you this is far from complete, as one could write a book about it, i've just wrote
this in what came up during my 5-minute round up, therefor I also I regret any possible spelling/grammar mistakes.
English is unfortunatly not my native language.

Now, this is all theory, I have read alot of threads about "made it", "made XXX in quarter"
I am wondering if anybody would be so kind to show me an example of an affiliate site that works. (even PM).

Today I realized there is nothing to loose only to win and after spending 7 hours again in traffic jams today to get to work, damn sure I am going to try.

Welcome!
Don't forget to check on your merchant's reputation. Some of them have the habit of reversing sales, or forgetting to pay. Or working with affiliates who will steal your commission.

While this looks like an easy way to make a living, for most of us it's very hard frustrating work. If you aren't willing to work hard and learn as you go along you'll be one of the 90% who barely earn their hosting costs.

This is the hardest "easy money" I've ever made.

<font size=1>Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out , and loudly proclaiming --WOW-- What a ride</font>

Good idea, as familiarity with a particular line can go a long way in helping to present it properly. But do try to avoid the common pitfall of selling "what you want to sell", as opposed to "what other people want to buy".

I've been following all of these rules the best I can for a couple of years now and have had shockingly bad results www.gigabyte.com. The only problem I can imagine would be the two just mentioned, corrupt merchants or parasites. I would be very interested in finding out if my merchant (Superstore Electronics) is reputable or if parasites (whatever those are) are affecting me.

You said you've been following all of the suggestions above to the best of your ability, but I saw your Google PageRank is 0/10. I'm not trying to be a butt-head here... but if you're doing all these things, why the poor PageRank?

I can also see your Alexa ranking is very healthy - it's &lt;100k - and for an affiliate site, this is actually VERY healthy by my measures. So you have managed to get into the top 100,000 sites on the Internet as far as traffic / visitors - and you did this with a PR of 0 - so you're DEFINITELY doing something right to get all that traffic...

You said your results were shockingly bad...

I think you should post some more questions here at ABW - maybe not under the newbie area. With your Alexa ranking, I think some input from others would definitely help.

I'm willing to join in the discussion to benefit you - I think with the kind of traffic your Alexa ranking reflects, you should be doing well. I know Alexa ain't perfect, but it's good enough to judge that you've got plenty of traffic.

If you'd like to have this discussion / help, I'd need to know where all that traffic is coming from so I can mentally figure out how to best sell to the audience you're attracting...

PM me if you want - but I think your traffic demands a group discussion to your benefit.